The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1887-06-29
ALASKA SCENERY.

Views In a Wonderland Of Glaeiers-
Streams Choked With Fish.
Mr.. w. H. Seton Karr, who Joined the New
York Times expedition to Alaska, has pub
fished the diary of his explorations in that
rittle-known land. Mr.. Karr regards the
scenery at Yakatat on Boring Bay, among
the Alaskan Alps, as the most wonderful of
its kind in the whole world. He says;
1.-THE mountains are covered with snow
and glaciers from sea-level to summit. The
air of early morning in latitude 800 N. is ex-
ceedingly transparent, while the vastness of
these mountains, ranging as they do from
5000 to nearly, if not quite, 10000 feet, inn
. presses the beholder under these conditions
with the sensation of their being too ethereal
to have any actual existence, or that they
cannot be anything except some unholy
illusion that must dissolve and dispense when
the sun rises. And this is to certain extent
what happens. Il seemed to be just what
Dore might have conceived as an imaginary
view Of mountain scenery in the planet
Mars. . y Imagine Mont Blanc placed
close to the sea-shore with its whole height
visible as measured from the sea-level;
then imagine Ben Nevis, the highest noun
tain in Great Britain, placed upon the sum
nit of Mont Blanc and the total height thus
reached would fall short of the summit of
Mount st. Elias. The latest estimate of its
height by the coast survey has madeit nearly
10000 feet, with an error either way of few
hundred feet. st. Elias, the last and highest
mountain of the range, and the nearest to
The sea, stands on broad base, from which
it rises like an Egyptian pyramid-straight,
regular and massive, from an icy plateau of
enormously extensive glaciers. Could a
blind man be brought to Yakatat, and
have his sight restored while each morsel of
the panorama, commencing from the east,
was separately presented to his view, he
would exclaim at first that nothing could
surpass its grandeur in that direction; then,
as his gaze would gradually be shifted round
10 the west, still loftier mountain ranges
would disclose themselves, till he would
think he must surely have arrived at the CHI
max. Higher and higher yet they would rise
as Mounts Cook and Vancouver were passed
in review while words would fail him to ex-
press his establishment as last of all his eyes
would rest on Mount st. Elias, the crown and
summit of all possibilities or impOssibilities
of grandeur, seeming to rise sheer out OF the
Pacific ocean with leap. From Elias east
ward, semi-circle of enormous peaks sur
rounds the bay, gradually dwindling in
importance and in height, ever. the smallest
of them being anoble mountain; while far
back toward the east from which we had
come, Mount Fairweather, which Is 5000
feet in height, glistened with opalescent light
above the forest trees"
At small inlet at which boat was landed
one day, small brooklet, but yard wide
and three inches deep, trickled from the
woods across the beach. It was completely
crowded with salmon and the water, not
being of a sufficient depth to cover them,
their backs were bare. Mr.. Karr says:
"There appeared to be truly greater bulk
of salmon than there was of water in the
brook. Anywhere ina length Of ten yards
of the stream was food enough for US for a
week. ] followed the brook some twenty
yards up its course, until fallen trees and
damp bushes turned me back, and every
where the surface was mass OF the moving
and swaying backs of the foolish fish.
Some had insinuated themselves into
extraordinary and seemingly inaccessi-
be positions, and could neither .ad-
vance nor retreat without landing
themselves high and dry. The stream was
gradually rising. From the tent-door,
through the smoke and rain. watched the
salmon ascending the streamlet. The sight
from the brook-side was as of vast fish
mongers slab, as there averaged twelve sal
mon to every two square yards OF water.
Some had been edged and pressed on to dry
land by the very crowds of their compan-
ions. and were shutting over the beach To
regain their native element"